More cops
Someone gave me a good quote today. It’s nothing new but before I get to it I will babble on a bit.
I’m not one to dwell on bygones (I hate that word) as such I do want to salute those in the military and law enforcement that work for the betterment of mankind. What does this have to do with bygones, I suppose I should explain what I mean. Obviously our world, our society is as it is and will not change so drastically that we don’t need armies and police, at least not in the near future. My previous post may have sounded as though I don’t respect or appreciate what these men and women in uniform do and I wanted to make it known that is not the case. I don’t like police and military persons in general but I recognize their skills, their sacrifices, and sadly, their necessity. I am a child of Europe and Europe is today a free place because of the sacrifices of the brave men and women who chose to fight for freedom. Being a student of history I am very aware of and touched by this.
So the “someone” who gave me the quote was a former police officer now working as a campus security officer. I asked him why police carry guns. It was meant mostly as a philosophical question but he returned the answer that someone will always have a gun so therefore the police need one too. That wasn’t the quote though. He later came back and said:
I have an answer to your question about why we carry guns. Because the price of freedom isn’t free. Freedom had to be paid for by someone.
It’s a striking set of words, it isn’t new we’ve all heard it but it is true. Because the word freedom has the word free in it does not mean that it comes for free. Be it the Nazi dictator over Europe or a drunk husband over his wife, some will try to rule others and there are people who choose not to let that happen, who choose to act.
Are they right or wrong for doing so? I don’t know.
What I do know is that standing by doing nothing is wrong and that it occurs far too frequently.